about

TINSQUO (tinz’ kwo) is a real-time performance of painter Mark Roth’s working process. It tracks the forward edge of studio life.

The name TINSQUO is short for "There Is No Status Quo."

process as practice

TINSQUO’s artblog format offers multiple points of entry:

• The latest drawings and acrylic paintings are posted day-by-day, filling thumbnail galleries that chart development of concerns and artistic vocabulary.
Monthly Palette calendars make visual the working regimen.
• “Process Posts” present “behind the scenes” glimpses into the mechanics of free play and vocabulary refinement.
• Time-lapse digital videos record the start-to-finish evolution of each oil painting.
Selected Writings address Mastery distilled, reviews, features, Links in the Link Age, and biographical details.
Public Projects extend the mission of creative advocacy beyond the province of the blog, building toward community artmaking.

narrative

The drawing and acrylic painting posts are in-the-moment works from the daily process.

These paintings – virtual and material - often resurface as constituent elements of digital compositions. These digital works may serve as the basis for oil paintings and act akin to the cartoons of old - when full-scale works were executed in preparation for frescoes and tapestries.

The oil paintings are the lodestar towards which this fractal complexity drives. Charting long-term developmental processes is the narrative unfolding on TINSQUO.

collecting experience

In embracing a work of art, you become an artist of your own experience. In this spirit, works featured on TINSQUO are available for collection. Contact - Mark@TINSQUO.com.